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Lichfield Road Aston

Hi Astonian,
I pop in here everyday, just to have a look around. I visited the UK in2011,and popped down to Aston. The whole area looks different, as you said The Vine is still there, but it was closed, and looked empty. Took a drive up Victoria Rd, boy how that has changed, all new houses now. I love seeing the old pics of Lichfield Rd, an how it looked when we were kids. Pity there isn't any of Park St. I have lived in Australia for longer than I lived in the UK now. The weather can go up and down. I live in Tasmania, the weather doesn't get as hot here, but when it does.. 'WOW". Weather in Sydney, and Melbourne is not so good at the moment. They're having lots of storms, with hail stones as big as golf balls, it is summer here, so that type of weather is unusual. Left UK in 1981, best move we did, as at the time we migrated here, UK was on a spiral turn and going down hill very fast. I grew up with Sheila, as kids we played in the street, or on Guy Fawkes night, we would have a guy, and stand outside of the Vine, asking for penny for the guy. Something that would be taboo now. We collected quite a bit of money, and then would run down to Jeffs the paper shop, and buy fireworks, or over the road to the chippie, and get some chips !! I never went to the Golden Cross, my hang out was The Vine, and the Duke of Wellington in Wainwright St.
Nice having a chat Alan.. Best wishes Jan. .'Jaffa"
 
Hi Jan,
Many thanks for coming backso soon to my reply when I see our sheila I will give her a mention about you
Also Christine and val the sisters out of all the cousins we are the closest that being the three girls
I remember the duke we lived around the corner right next door to the widows arms around by Thompsons
Facing claribel coaches where there was a little hut selling petrol
Would you recall roger Ensor of park st he had a sister called brands val married him but it never worked out
She married a guy called again and the have been married now for about fifty years now
We'll Jan I have to shoot off now but will catch up with you later best wishes Alan,,,,Astonian,,,,
 
Hi stars
What a walk down memory lane for me indeed it seemed like yesterday to me
Good picture of robbos fruit and veg and all the other shops along there
The two shops on either side of robbos was the one before him was Mr dents hardware
The one after robbo,s was diggers news agents spent loads of tanners in there
Buying there marbles 6d a netted bag to take to school if he sold out dashed down further along
To the corner toy shop at the end of the shop
S and the corner of Victoria road was Mr Taylor and bought from him
Took them to school upper Thomas street the same day and came back with nil ,
I was skunked as the lingo went when you cleared some one out ( Meaning you won all there marbles of the kid you was playing
Some kids looked for a slight groove in the school playground tarmac and you would line three up at a time
A
And so any steps back from your marbles the kid you are playing would stand back,
And he would try three shots at yours for everyone he missed you claimed his marbles
Buy if he kissed any one of your marbles meaning knocking or touching any one marble they was his your three you put down
Some played the six marbles I played cautionly stuck to the three but still lost them all
And regarding thompsons shop the gates you see I was a little kid aged 6 years old
And for the next couple of years I would roam down the terrace which if you look at another of your pics
Just next to thomsons was Aston,s Cake shop you will see a gap where they demoed them down first
Meaning the houses between the two shops throne was Barnsley's grocers
But back on track the gates you see with the bars on the bottom set of bars on there gates I sat down there day and night from dawn to dusked
All the guys whom always used to shout and talk to me whom worked there even peter thompson
And the slaughter men I there say there could be some one alive today may recall the little blonde hair
Kid squatting on the pavement I had a fasication for waiting for the pigs to come to there shop and watching the port pie trolly coming up and down.
On a chain, and there is alot of things I could say about the whole complex of Lichfield red
That was my kingdom when I got older I used to get up early and push the postmans bike up and down the whole of Lichfield red
All the way down to the kingedwars pub Aston hall red and post letters through all the houses and the shops then he said you had better go home now son and get ready for school and so I ran all the way back and put on my mail tree chtrismas boots
As I said I have a great memory of growing up in Aston, and as mom was an Aston girl
Parliment street and all her family of jelfs owning all the cafes and business in and around the city
She was well known because of her parents family still I will not waffle on otherwise I will never finish
But its great you can supply us all members some of our old pictures of Lichfield red
Incidentialy my aunt Maud smart from Whitehouse street worked at the Astotpria picture house on the cross so I used to her in free to see films
And when I was nine I got knocked down outside there on a saturday afternoon
And went sky diving back up the road through the air when the car it me my old man was working
At the golden cross pub ( Head barman ) that time for the Dodds Family best wishes Astonian,,,,Alan,,,,,,
 
My late Wife was born in a terrace yard in Lichfield Road in 1928 called 'Sunnyside', who thought of a name like that ! It was still there in the 50's looking forlorn and desolate, no idea when it was finally demolished. Eric
 
Surprisingly Eric, there were several terraces or courts called Sunnyside, in Angelina st, Grange Road, College St, William St, Alfred St, Yardley Wood Road and Railway Terrace, though, admittedly some probably lived up to their name more than others.
 
A dear friend phoned me yesterday and asked if I could find somewhere to post her pre and post war photo's of the Lichfield road area. She has not the facility to copy them so I offered to do it for her. I will post them on this thread and then pass them on to Carl Chin John Houghton and the BHF Birmingham and Aston pages. She has quite a few and I am feeling excited.
 
My late Wife was born in a terrace yard in Lichfield Road in 1928 called 'Sunnyside', who thought of a name like that ! It was still there in the 50's looking forlorn and desolate, no idea when it was finally demolished. Eric
Hi Are you sure about Sunnyside Terrace still standing in 1950's

The records I have suggests that that Sunnyside Terrace was the back of 12 Lichfield Rd which would been developed to extend Ansells Brewery.

In later years further extension was built taking up the Old Big Broom Hardware shop you want it they'd got it it might have taken sometime to find it.

Regards Ray
 
Ray, you could well be right, I first met my late Wife whilst on leave Christmas 1951, she then lived in Vicarage Road (4 back of 128) and they had lived there all through the war years, so they probably left 'Sunny Side Terrace' in the 30's. I was probably looking at another terrace still standing in the 50's further along Lichfield Road. At 86 years old memory can play tricks. Eric
 
Ray, just been speaking to my sister in law and she is convinced Sunny Side terrace was located between Aston station and King Edward pub and was still standing in the '50's. They left in 1933 and she was born 1935 in Vicarage Road. Perhaps Mike can help out with a suitable map?? Eric
 
They started to demo those handful of courts around 1952/3
They started the demo of those little shops on the cross first and built there new Ansells
Block of offices 1950/1 with new logo sign above before demolishing along Lichfield road
Then they started to knock down a batch of shop facing the Aston cross picture house
And included the courts and terraces right up to the corner of upper Portland street
And dear old Mr mattys radio and television shop
We did at one time had pictures of these courts on this forum over ten years ago
By 1955 the complete section of Ansells frontage was complete along the Lichfield road
Even the side entrance in upper Portland street with there new Pitt for keeping there call
Init must have been about a fifty feet or more drop they had a steel ladder to get down to the bottom
And to climb back up the had the over head crane with bucket to pick it up and transfers it to feed there boilers or generators or what they ever used within the brewery
My friend col gaskin and myself was a pair of little mischiefs kids and bored
We would jump of this parapet and and drop hundred of feet into this slag heap nobody
Ever seen us wall,king into that yard we dared each other to see whom is the braveist
But we both done it together by golly we was a pair of crazy kids then
Our little bodies sank into the coal we was panicking and looking up all the time
In case that huge shovel came down on us we forced our way across to the Steel ladder and climb up
There was a hut over the back of the yard which would have been a gate keeper
Whom would log the horses and carts and there new vehicles in and out
But most times he was never in his hut there is also pictures of the new yard being built
And you would had seen this little wooden hut in the back ground
I hope our friend can get these oic on for us
On the subject of terrace there was one court yard left just yards passing mattys
And one of our members grand father lived up there and we lived up the terrace another forty yards passing
That court yard it was called Cromwell square /terrace
And there is a book out some where its called some think like the courts or some think
But our friend on the forum her grand father whom like his tots of beer was always in there
He was a nice old gentleman getting on in age at the time as his wife
And there court was virtually next door to the pub called the widows arms and she would come down and draft him out of it we used to laugh at them seeing his wife draft him back to the house
And this was photographed in this book with his name included as well so I knew it was them
The book had there court in the book as well it showed you right up it
And the ringer for washing was always kept out side the house as they was only tiny house
But I have vowed to them I will hunt this book down
May I had before some one says different about the widows arms it changed it name in 1955/6
To the queens head along with the cross guns changed as well the akinson pub on Lichfield road the next pub from the widows best wishes Alan,, Astonian,,
L
 
Hi Folks
Just been viewing a 1920 map Lichfield Roads and show Public House on the corner of Lichfield Rd and Church Rd,Anybody which knew as Jeff's Café.

Anybody have any idea what the name was?

Ray
 
Hi Mike
Thanks very much for that info, the times I've walked past Jelfs Café, it was obvious when you look at the outside it must have been something other than a shop
 
Hi Caroline
What a cracking picture you have provided to the forum,as that is my family,s tree
It was my mothers family whom everybody knows was the Jelfs coffee rooms
I am feeling Estatic now I have seen this cracking picture of the flag ship of there business
And I am going to down load it and have it blown up and I will be circulating it around my brothers
Its a dammed shame that my mother was around today to see it
They was all around the area with there shops even along around the corner on Aston road north
And across over to park lane just passed the chemist there was four shops
They had orinioanaly there father set up there business,s for all of them
They bought the shops one was a chippie directly next door was a big coffee shop
With bed and board lodging for several people and down the yard between the two shops was a huge
Yard that you drove down contained one single dwelling rented to a Mrs Mac
One two story ware housing two work shops and sheds
Plus the other side of the park lane facing 235 was little Cyril a little blonde hair chap
Which was another chippie facing them they owned and sold it off to little Cyril
They used to wave to each other during shop hours especially lunch time when they was open
It was next to the billiard hall my dad used to run the bar there in his younger days
As he also did all the pub land lords for all the pubs around the cross and Aston road north
Whilst running the pub for the Dodds Family my mother told us of the story that whilst
Working at the Golden cross she caught him snogging Mrs Dodd she went bar my at him
And and one in the billiard hall I think he must have been a player in is life
The sad thing she never went out all her life stuck with ten nippers in the house
They had them in the city arcades along with Joe Lyons and there waitress staff was dressed like Lyons staff as well
They was heavenly involved connections with pattison and Hughes whom they mixed up with
And they bought one or two shops off them even the senior Mr Hughes of the partnership of Pattison and. Hughes
When she was young Asked her to marry him he kept pestering her but declined
And decided to run off with a no hoped father like mine
Still that's another story .,but I will say what I can recall my mother was a good looking young lady when she was young
Incidently that shop was owned and ran by all the five members of the held family
There was one name bill, ie, William Jelf,
Whom could not handle business so my grand father my mothers daughter mother
Bought it off him and ran it for a while one by one he bought there shops and eventually
Sold them off in order to keep up his life style with different hangers on in women
But he sold that particular shop showing to Latham's decorating shop
And area layers sold the other three across on park lane all except the crockery hire business
At the great of 235/7 park lane in 1969 where upon he died at moms house in Victoria red Aston
Where upon it took him forty years to crawl back to her and knock the door for forgiveness
For deserting her and she took him in and died six months later
Thanks again Carolina for the picture best wishes Alan,,Astonian,,,,
 
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